UMass Boston Athletics became a reality at the varsity level
against NCAA competition in 1980-81 and Robert A. Corrigan was a
driving force behind the dream of so many at the Harbor Campus to
sponsor athletics at UMB. Dr. Corrigan served as UMass Boston's
Chancellor and Professor of English from 1979 to 1988, before
becoming the 12th President of San Francisco State University in
September of 1988. He has been a champion of community service and
civic engagement throughout his career, having established
university-community partnerships at both UMass Boston and SFSU. In
1996, Dr. Corrigan was tapped by former President Bill Clinton to
chair both the Steering Committee of college and university
presidents for the "America Reads Challenge" and the National
Steering Committee for the "America Counts" initiative. Dr.
Corrigan also serves on the Board of Directors of the San Francisco
Chamber of Commerce and has sat on various Mayor's Councils for the
city of San Francisco. He is a member of the National Cancer
Institute's Comprehensive Minority Biomedical Branch Task Force and
the National Advisory Council for Campus Contact. Dr. Corrigan
formerly served on the Board of Directors for the Jump Start
program and is a founding member, past Chairman of the Board and
Distinguished Fellow of the Association of Urban Universities. A
biographer of poet Ezra Pound, he was also involved in the
emergence of Ethnic Studies in the late 1960s. Dr. Corrigan has
served as a provost at the University of Maryland, dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Missouri and
faculty member Bryan Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania,
the University of Iowa and the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.
He received his A.B. from Brown University and both his master's
and doctoral degrees in American Civilization from the University
of Pennsylvania.